Join Me on the Dark Side 4/15-4/19 Trip Report

[awalker1015]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my short trip report! My husband and I traveled to the World this past weekend so I could run the Dark Side half marathon and we did it without our kids! While they were unamused, we had an amazing time.

I booked the trip eight months ago and originally planned to stay with a friend who lives in Orlando. Then DH and I tossed around the idea of making it an early anniversary trip. Then we realized I would finish my BSN program around the same time so we decided to make a vacation out of it.

My mom arrived Friday to watch my kids who are 9 and 11. And Lucille our almost 13 year old blue tick hound. Our flight departed Nashville at 620p so we headed to the airport around 4. Dropped the car at Flightpark and arrived at the airport at 4:20 to find no lines! Breezed through security and officially start our vacation.



Our flight was uneventful.

We arrived early, grabbed bags and headed downstairs to DME! We waited about 20 minutes and we off. Originally we were to be the last stop, but due to road closures for the race we were first!

Oddly we received a text around 5:00p while still in Nashville saying our room wasn't quite ready and never received one saying it was ready. So we headed to the registration desk first and were assigned room 2820 in Alligator Bayou. We could hear Yehaw Bob from the lobby and decided to stop there first before checking out our room. He is so fun! We are coming back with our kids in October and look forward to doing this again. While there we enjoyed these:

After the set was over we wandered over to check out our room. We booked a standard room but were put in a garden view in Alligator Bayou 28. It was vey you quiet, close to a quiet pool, and reasonably close to the West Depot.


We love POR. For the price, I think you really get a good value. The property is peaceful and beautiful. Busses are efficient and sharing amenities with POFQ is a nice perk. Also love the boat to Disney Springs.

We had ordered wine, water and snacks from Garden Grocer and called for those to be delivered. After they arrived we poured cups of warm wine and went to check things out. Walked around resort a bit then realized it was almost 1:00am and headed to bed. We had breakfast reservations the next day and also needed to hit the race expo for packet pickup. To be continued....

 

[dlavender]

Following from Nashville!

We are planning our next trip down and considering POR as well. We normally do CBR, but are wanting to switch it up.

 

[awalker1015]

Day 2-

We slept until 7:30 which is unheard of for us. Got dressed and took a bus to AK then to AKL for our Boma breakfast reservation. I was really looking forward to this as we have never eaten before.

The lobby at the resort is truly beautiful. I loved the light fixtures and dark woods. We were thirty minutes early for our 10:00 reservation so we checked in then walked around and toured the pool and lobby. We headed back over to Boma a few minutes before ten. And waited. And waited. Lots of people were complaining they had been waiting over an hour for their ADR. A few minutes later an elderly woman tripped coming down the stairs and ended up smashing the back of her head against the stone floor. It looked awful. I'm a nurse and my instinct was to run over but there were people crowding around her assessing her. She seemed to be ok but the poor thing lay there on the floor for twenty minutes waiting on EMS then another fifteen minutes after they arrived. This commotion seemed to only worsen the wait at the restaurant for some reason, maybe because the managers were involved in the incident. Thankfully the woman was deemed to be ok, but was taken to the hospital anyway for a CT.

At this point we had been waiting an hour for our ADR so i asked the hostess if we could just leave and not be charged a cancellation fee, which she said was fine. So off we went to the lobby to catch a bus to the Expo.

The expo was cool. So many things to look at and buy. Saw Jeff Galloway but the like to meet him was awfully long. Hit my bib and gear bag then headed to check out the merchandise. Mark went off and bought me a roll of KY tape for my knee while I toyed with the like to meet Jeff Galloway. Never ended up meeting him because we decided we wee too hungry. So we headed into the ESPN grill for a burger. Maybe it's because we were starving, but it was an amazing burger! We split it since we had an early dinner ADR. Thought I took a picture but apparently not.


After lunch we headed back to POR to change clothes. We had a 5:00 ADR at Captains Grille and decided to take the boat to Disney Springs then grab a bus to the Boardwalk. The boat ride was lovely.

 

[A State Of Autumn]

Yay! Can't wait to hear about the marathon.

 

[awalker1015]

Day 2 continued...
We walk around Disney Springs for a few minutes but it was super crowded so we hopped a bus for the Boardwalk, a place we oddly had never been to.


We walked around then stopped at Ale and Compass for cocktails. Let me preface this by saying that I know drinking the nice before a half marathon isn't wise. However this was our first couples trip in years and we had a lot to celebrate. Besides, I wasn't shooting for a PR so all was well.

Moscow Mule for me and I think Mark had a Mai Tai:

I love this little lounge, but I liked the next one we visited even more. Next we went to Martha's Vineyard at BC. The bartenders were very nice and chatty and we were the only ones there. I had a margarita and Mark had something tropical:


Soon it was time for our 5:00 ADR at Captains Grill. We were one of the first diners there and were seated right away. We shared the gnocchi for an app and each had a glass of of Chardonnay. For my dinner I ordered the crab cakes. These were quite good and came with chips and a succotash that I really liked that we made with edamame instead of Lima beans. Very good flavor and crab cakes had mostly crabmeat with little filler:


Mark had the strip, which came with cauliflower mash:


His was excellent as well. This was our first time at Captains Grill and I think it's underrated. We will definitely try it again.

After dinner we needed to get back to POR as my 0230 wake up call was going to be brutal. So we took an Uber ride back as so not to have to switch busses. This was an excellent decision. As soon as I requested the ride I had the driver calling me to tell me he was pulling into BC. The entire process took 13 minutes from the time I ordered the ride to when we arrived at the resort. The driver was nice, car was clean and it cost $7 plus tip. Well worth not spending 45-60 minutes fighting with the bus. We did get the nastiest look from the guard at the POR gate. I get it- they want you to use WDW transportation and I agree with that, however in this case Uber worked great. We headed back to our room and I got my race outfit ready:


I was really nervous about the early wake up time. Mark and I had decided he would just stay at the resort and I would meet him back there after the race. It's hard to actually see anyone finish the race unless you have the chEAR package purchased and we knew we wanted to hit the parks so better for at least one of us to be rested.

Up next: Race Day!!!

 

[awalker1015]

Race Day arrived early at 2:30. I didn't sleep well because I was so worried about not hearing my alarm. I got dressed in the bathroom and taped up my knee. Unfortunately i woke Mark up so we came in to say good luck.

I arrived at the south depot and got right on a bus and was at the start line at Epcot 15 minutes later. It was a long walk to the corrals and bag check. I already had 3500 steps on my Fitbit before the race even started.
My corral:


If you ever decide to run a Disney race, I highly recommend submitting proof of time to get a closer corral. It really makes a difference. My friend ran the half as well and was further back and was almost an hour and a half behind me , even though our times were similar.

A pic around mile 2 in World Showcase:





I have more pictures from the race but am having trouble uploading them. I finished around 7:45 and other than some blisters on my foot felt great!!!
I'd like to say something about RunDisney. This was my first race and I thought it was awesome. I've read a lot of differing opinions on social media and I understand the 10k wasn't well executed. But I thought the half was great- there was music and sound effects throughout the course, giant screens screening the Star Wars movies, characters, etc. I only took photos with the storm troopers and in front of Everest- the lines otherwise were too long. But all in all I liked the course and they did a great job with water stands. My friend who was further back said it was more bottlenecked for the later corrals.

Crossed finish line and got my medal and has my photo taken. I was back on a bus to POR by 8:15 and in my room at 8:40. Mark spent the time fishing at the resort and was ready to hit the parks when I got back. The plan today was to meet up with my friend and her family and do Hollywood studios where we had FPs.

In typical fashion all plans changed. We ended up running into my friend at the POR bus stop as she had taken a bus to a random resort in order to get to HS. We decided to have her husband and kids meet us in an hour at Epcot. We went on the HS and rode Star Tours and RnRC. Love the new films for Star Tours! And RnRC was awesome as always.

We caught the boat over to Epcot and entered through WS, meeting up with my friends family in UK where all the adults indulged in a Harp.

We wandered around WS ending up in Mexico in the Cantina. I think the food here is decent but I do hate how little seating they have for the volume of guests they serve. We ended up eating standing up outside the the big temple. Spent the way of the afternoon drinking around the world. Found a very nice table tucked back in the Japanese garden and spent a good chunk of time catching up.


Later we walked over to the amphitheater and caught a showing of the best box performance. Around 6 we decided we wanted dinner but had not made ADRs. Epcot at 6:00p for 6 people on a busy race weekend = bad news. But not today! Mark walked up to Via Napoli who said they could take our party in about 15 minutes! Score!

We shared one of the Fanily size pizzas, half Quattro formaggio half sausage and a cheese plate. It was fabulous. Love that pizza!

After dinner we caught a little of the Garden Rocks concert which was Blood, Sweat and Tears, had a cronut and took a ride on Spaceship Earth. After that we said good bye to our friend and headed back to POR. We had MK rope drop to hit the next morning!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Awesome!!

Also hello fellow Lizard I'm a newish runner, but hoping to have my first half be Princess 2017.

We're thinking we may end up doing a non park trip to save on the ticket prices, but I love all the stuff you guys were able to fit in Can't wait to read about MK.

 

[awalker1015]

Awesome!!

Also hello fellow Lizard I'm a newish runner, but hoping to have my first half be Princess 2017.

We're thinking we may end up doing a non park trip to save on the ticket prices, but I love all the stuff you guys were able to fit in Can't wait to read about MK.

Hello!!! Princess half sounds so fun. I haven't said a word to mark but I totally plan to do another RunDisney event next year. I will say the parks were an awesome way to celebrate, but my feet were dead by the end of the weekend.

Was bummed I didn't have a true lizard meet. I met some folks at gear check but Mark and I over-scheduled ourselves so I didn't get to really connect with anyone.

 

[awalker1015]

Day 3- rope drop at MK! We got up early, had coffee in the room and headed to the west depot, where we waited about ten minutes for a bus. Arrive at MK as the RD ceremony was starting and entered the park and headed left, as we always do. No one , I mean no one was in Frontierland. We rode Splash and BTMRR multiple times each with no wait. Then we headed to Pirates. Then to Splash and BMTRR again! Soon it was time for our BOG ADR. I know this place gets mixed reviews but we have found lunch to be a winner. I had the roast turkey sandwich and Mark had the steak sandwich. Excellent. We didn't wait more than a few minutes and our preorder was in the system when we checked in. I'm retrospect we would have split an entree.